The word “gong show”? A staggering understatement for today.
It was as if everyone who was away for the past couple of days came back into the city with a vengeance just for the Boxing Day sales. From the time we got onto the tube and made our exit at Tottenham Court Road, walking to Oxford Circus was like being carried by a swell of shoppers. The energy was on the insane side, but it was somewhat welcomed after the freakish ghost town-like atmosphere yesterday.
Today was one of those days I knew I was writing off. I slept on and off throughout the night but forced myself to stay in bed and rest until i saw morning’s first light break through the window curtains. I swear, it seemed like the longest night ever. I guess that means I wanted up and at ’em. In reality, I probably was in bed for just over 6 hours and slept maybe 4 hours.
Morning was nice and leisurely. Got up at 8am and had some brekkie and slowly got ourselves out for a walk. As there were no trains and buses or very limited but uber-expensive taxis for hire, Chris and I walked down to the nearby Angel/Islington area.
So after 2 hours flight delayed, followed by one hour on the tarmac being de-iced, I finally made it to London!
Cleared customs easily and jumped the Gatwick Express into town. When I finally met Chris at Victoria station, it was about 730-ish. My flight was originally supposed to get in at 3pm. Uhm, yeah.
Wowzers, time is just flying at breakneck speed. My niece turned two today so we threw her a little birthday party.
Watching her play brings back a flood of long forgotten childhood memories. Whereas she’s all about the Elmo at this age, I remember my brother was all about Ernie and I always had a soft spot for Grover. Ah, Sesame Street rocks.
She’s learning new words everyday, but kidlet has basically 4 words in her vocab she uses most frequently: noooooooooo, pleeeeease, daddy-eeeee and outsiiiiiiiide. All said with a wail like an ambulance siren.
And she’s perfected the wide eyed doe look and a pouty lower lip she can trip over; all the better to wrap daddy, uncle, grandmom and most everyone around her little finger. Resistance is futile.
Look out world.
Because I arrived from work late to archery class, the 15lb recurve bows I normally practice with were taken by 2 newbies at tonight’s group.
No matter cuz the manager of the gallery thought I was ready to try out the 20lb recurve. Adult archers typically begin with a bow 20-25 lbs in weight, compared to the 15-20 lb ones which are appropriate for young or new archers to hold onto easier while developing good form.
What will 3 weeks away from archery because of work and school do to me? Make me feel (not quite) like it’s the first time I ever picked up a bow and arrow. Out of 3 arrows, 2 will hit the target while the other one will embarrassingly hit the backboard.
Tonight’s challenge of winning the 50/50 pot involved shooting at the individual playing cards tacked up around paper targets. The aim was to hit 2 playing cards to use for playing poker, Texas hold ’em style. And whoever made the best hand with the 5 community cards gets the pot. You’d think it would be easy.
My co-worker asked me yesterday what my background is. She thought I was of mixed German descent.
Now, that’s a first. I’ve gotten Spanish a couple of times when I was living in the states, but never German.
Like almost everyone who first meets me, she thought I was Japanese. But then of course, as soon as I say my name, that gives me away.
The start of the blurry night began with a visit to Potters House of Horrors in Surrey. Peggy had wanted to go badly and I was game. Being the ex-horror film aficionado, I thought, ‘How scary could this thing be anyways?’ Well, if I had placed a bet on that, I would’ve lost the house.
I’m still shooting by instinct and I’m getting better, in that less of my arrows are shooting wayward. There are a few, but not as many as previous meets. However, I’ve set a goal for myself starting tonight. I want to be able to shoot all 3 of my arrows to hit the yellow bulls-eye at the same round. And if that bar is too high for right now, I’ll settle for all 3 arrows to be in the yellow and red circles. For now.
I’ve been looking forward to archery all week. I hadn’t gone now for about a month and that made all the difference.
Tonight, I found myself shooting mostly by instinct, rather than using the push pin sight. The other archers remarked how when I shot by instinct, especially at the further distances, my bows would quiver up and down in the air like a javelin, rather than fly by straight.
I suppose perhaps, that’s akin to throwing a curve ball or throwing a football with a spin. And they never seen anyone in class do that before. How I did it, I don’t know.